Telemental health has been characterized as having more randomized controlled trials than any other medical discipline area. 21 The telepsychiatry literature shows a growing consensus regarding the efficacy, feasibility, and acceptability of virtual psychiatric services. 21,22 Telepsychiatry has demonstrated efficacy along the continuum of services—from psychoeducation, to assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. 22 It has been used to treat a wide variety of behavioral health diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, bipolar, posttraumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and schizophrenia, and is associated with increased treatment engagement and adherence, improved symptoms, fewer hospital admissions, and shorter hospital stays. 22 In a comprehensive review of telemental health, Bashshur and colleagues 21 noted consistent evidence that virtual psychiatric and other mental health services are linked to improved quality of life and symptomology indicators across demographically and diagnostically diverse groups of patients. Virtual treatment modalities have had a significant impact upon psychiatric care access, particularly for historically underserved populations such as rural residents, college students, veterans, native populations, and incarcerated persons. 2 Acceptance rates show that patients and providers comfortably use telehealth platforms 5 with some subgroups of patients (ie, patients who are younger, immobile, elderly, worried about stigma, or on the autism spectrum) reporting a preference for virtual over in-person care. 15,23,24
As previously noted, telepsychiatry is showing particular success in improving care access through integrated care models. Virtual care platforms enable workforce multiplication, through which one psychiatric provider can provide consultation to primary care and other medical providers, thereby improving their ability to manage psychiatric symptoms and medication across their entire patient population. Team-based, primary-care depression care models with virtual psychiatry are associated with measures of patients’ treatment satisfaction and adherence, symptom reduction, and quality of life that exceed usual care treatment outcomes. 21 Future research will move beyond measures of feasibility and efficacy and inform effective means of telepsychiatry implementation into health care systems. 25